Costa Rica

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Hello, one
and all! Sorry for yet another delay
but since I’ve returned from my cousin’s wedding, I've been working constantly up until this last Friday. 10 days in a row sure
can fly by when you’re not looking.

Since I
last left you, a lot has happened.
First of all, I booked a vacation for this fall to Ecuador and
Peru! It’s going to be amazing. Or at least I hope it will be amazing! It’s the first time my wife and I have been
to either country but it’s part of our world domination tour. We’ve been to Ireland (nearly all of it),
Northern Ireland, London, Germany, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica (to name but a
few) so far. I’m really looking forward
to finding new vegan places in each country and reporting back on them.

You’d think
that’d be all, but you’d be wrong. We
also booked our (last major) vacation for 2015. Brussels, Amsterdam, Bruges, Paris, various cities in Luxembourg,
and wherever else we can manage to visit are all on the list. This will mark the first time we’ve been to
all of these places. I told you: world
domination tour. I say it’s our last
major vacation because after that, we might stick to small trips here and
there. We just wanted to go out with a
bang. It might seem a bit crazy but we
generally live like misers for most of the year. Plus, my wife never uses her vacation time so that helps to pay
for our tickets. I just didn’t want you
all to think that the title of my blog was a bit misleading. I still wear the same clothes I’ve had for
over a decade. See? Broke. With that being said, I may be posting fewer
restaurant reviews in an effort to save money.
SAD, I know.

Anyway! Now that you’re all caught up, let’s get to
the heart of the entry. I wanted to get
to a restaurant we went to in Lockport, IL a short while back. I just never got around to mentioning it
thanks to all the craziness going on in my world. It’s a shame because the restaurant in question is quite good and
worth the trip if you’re even remotely close-by. You see, we went to Healthy Sins Vegan Café for a raw lunch.

I’ve never
been to Lockport despite the fact that I’ve lived about 45 minutes away for
most of my life. I wish I had visited
it sooner because it looks like nothing has changed since the 1930s. You half-expect Bonnie and Clyde to run out
of a bank at any moment.

I found the speakeasy!

It’s got a
small but cool main street and you can walk along the Illinois and Michigan
Canal that runs next to their main street.
It makes for a peaceful Saturday if you’re looking to get away.

The
restaurant itself was very cool and unexpected given the 1930s vibe from the
town. The restaurant has artwork
hanging up along the walls and the tables themselves are in the shape of
leaves. I’ve felt that the one problem
with raw restaurants tends to be that the meals look smaller than you would
want for the price you pay for them.
Don’t get me wrong – I love raw restaurants and Chicago has/had a few
that are quite good. But, as the Broke
Vegan, it’s not a type of restaurant I’d go to each week.

That being
said, this restaurant’s portions were decent.
I did spend quite a bit but that’s mainly because I wanted to make sure
I had enough variety to give a decent review.
We ordered two appetizers, two main meals, and two desserts for about
$60. By comparison, we ate at the Loving
Heart (see the review further down the blog) for about $25-30 and ate like
kings. If we were just going there any
other normal day we probably would’ve only spent about $45 or so. That being said, we went for lunch and were
full for most of the day.

Our first
appetizer was an order of bagel bites.
The ‘bagels’ were dehydrated bread slices (probably made of a
combination of flax and some sort of seeds if I had to guess). There were six slices and each slice had its
own topping. There was a pesto, a pumpkin
seed cheese, a taco ‘meat’, an egg salad, a tuna, and a ‘sloppy joe’
topping. I would have to say that my
favorites were probably the taco meat, the egg salad, and the sloppy joe. I loved the variety and the unique ways they
were able to create raw, vegan toppings.

The second
appetizer was an order of nachos that featured dehydrated chips. The dish came with taco meat, guacamole,
salsa and onions, and sour cream drizzled over it all. These. Were. Fantastic. The menu says it’s a meal in itself and
that’s no joke. We probably could’ve
just had the two appetizers and two desserts and been content.

My wife
ordered the pizza after much debate and was really impressed with it. It looked delicious and I probably would
order that the next time we went. The
waitress had recommended it to her and said it was a popular choice. So if you’re new to the raw scene and don’t
know what to get you might want to check that out.

I ordered
the sloppy joe’s because I grew up addicted to sloppy joe sandwiches and
whenever I see a sloppy joe option on a menu, I have to give it a shot. It wasn’t too bad but not my favorite raw
dish. I was originally going to go with
a raw pasta dish and probably should’ve because I think after eating all that
other raw taco meat, I was on raw vegan meat overload. It was an interesting take and I dig their
attempt at it but by the end of the meal I was about ready to explode. The dish also came with a small side salad
and a small fruit salad.

Why can't I eat the picture?!?

The dessert
I had was a raw apple pie, which – and I cannot stress this enough – was
amazing! It tasted like it was cooked
and was probably one of the best raw desserts I’ve had (not counting
homemade). That was worth the trip to
Lockport alone. Just look at the
picture! I’m drooling even now.

All in all,
I would definitely return here and I recommend it to anyone who wants good food
and is looking for a little indulgence (as far as spending a little cash
goes). The staff was super friendly and
the décor and vibe were cool.

Just down the street is Naked
Sprout Organics Market, which makes its own juices and smoothies. I would also recommend stopping inside to
grab a drink before you head back home.
I had an oatmeal cinnamon smoothie, which might sound odd but was pretty
good! It had a bit too much nutmeg for
my liking but was tasty none-the-less.
My wife, however, had the strawberry-lemon cheesecake smoothie and – hot damn –
it was so, so, so good! It was like I
was really drinking a mashed up cheesecake.

I promise
not to be gone for as long as I have been for my next entry. I have a few things lined up to talk
about. Hope everyone is well! Until next time, keep calm and vegan on!

You can check out Healthy Sins Vegan Café HERE. They are located at 928 S. State Street,
Lockport, IL, 60441.

Monday, June 2, 2014

It’s been
quite the last few days! For starters,
we just got back from my cousin’s wedding in Indianapolis yesterday. What a fun time and unlike the experiences
of a few vegans and vegetarians out there, we ate like royalty. We were expecting a meal to be created
especially for us but we kind of screwed up once we were able to eat. The food was set-up on a few tables and
since we weren’t told any differently, we just joined everyone else and looked
through the various dishes to see what was vegan. Surprisingly, quite a bit was.
We had pasta (not cooked with butter), salad, fruit, rolls, and grilled
veggies. I walked back to our table
with two plates in my hands, as did my wife, and we proceeded to eat our meals.

That’s when
my uncle walked over and asked if we had been served our meals. With a bit of a confused look, we told him
we thought that the food we had gone up to grab had been the meals we were
supposed to have received. Turns out we
had been wrong. Whoops! A minute or two
later and we were brought out individual plates that were set down in front of
us. What was presented was a plate of
potato wedges with herbs, grilled veggies, and a pastry that was filled with
mushrooms and some sort of sauce (which was amazing!). That by itself would’ve been great. Three plates! Since I wasn’t going to waste good food, and since I am a bottomless
pit when it comes to food, I nearly finished everything. Which helped since I needed the food to soak
up all the liquor I had. We had a great
time! It was such a beautiful wedding.

HOWEVER, the real reason I am
writing this entry is to discuss the third annual Veggie Pride Parade that was
held in Grant Park in Chicago last Saturday.
It was our first time going and I would’ve missed it again had I not
seen Dr. Oppenlander send a tweet out about the event. (I’ll be discussing Dr.
Oppenlander in the near future) We had
been meaning to go to the last two but just could never go with the way our
work schedules were. With much
excitement, we headed out on a wonderful Saturday morning and arrived at the
lakefront with plenty of time to spare.
How sad is it that I’ve lived in the Chicago area for most of my life
and I’ve never really been to Grant Park before?

The event
was held across the street from the famous Buckingham Fountain with a tent and
stage with music playing in the background.
On one side of the stage there were a few tents up for sponsors and on
the other side a few tables up for various groups and activities. We walked up to the registration table and
signed in so we could walk along the parade route and we received our
nametags. After walking around the area
and taking pictures for a few minutes we were asked to form a line behind MissChicago, Marisa Buchheit, and a few others who were leading the parade. That’s right. There’s a vegan Miss Chicago.
How rad is that?

Can't beat that background!

I must say
that I enjoy the vegan/vegetarian community.
I like it in all of its shapes and sizes. I love the hipster vegans in all their stereotypical glory. I love the wacky and wild vegans that wear
anything that’ll draw attention to themselves.
I love them all. It’s always fun
to see who shows up and wears what.
Outsiders might see some people at these events and go, “What was he/she
thinking when they wore that?” but I quite like it.

We started
the parade by going north on Columbus Drive, around the Art Institute of
Chicago, down Michigan Avenue, up Roosevelt Road, and then back down Columbus
Drive to where we began. It was a
longer walk than it appeared to be on the map, that’s for sure. However, it was fun! There was a lot of chanting, waving of
signs, various noise-making, and a whole bunch of good vibes flowing. Since I’m a bit of an introvert, I felt a
bit odd drawing attention to myself as we chanted random vegan slogans (“Go
vegan, go veg!”) but the more we walked, the more relaxed I became. Plus, it helps that my wife was there to
wave the metaphorical vegan flag. There
were plenty of cars driving by with people honking their horns, waving, or
taking pictures as they passed.

Who knows
how many people were actually curious to find out more about a vegan/vegetarian
life just by seeing us but it was fun being around people who had the same
interests as me. It’s kind of the same
feeling I get whenever I go to vegan or vegetarian restaurants. There are so few of us out there that it is
nice when you get the opportunity to surround yourself with others that are
like you, enjoying the same things as you.

Hope Bohenac

After the
parade, we listened to a few speakers including Karyn Calabrese, Marisa
Buchheit, Hope Bohenac, Mikael Nielsen, and Vadim Moskalin. Dr. Terry Mason,
the Chief Operating Officer of the Cook County Department of Health, was
supposed to speak but I didn’t see him on stage. So I can’t say for certain if he was there or not. He may have appeared when I went to grab a
falafel. Bummer. I was really excited
to see Karyn Calabrese speak since we’ve been to every one of her restaurants
here in Chicago. Every one of her
restaurants has something unique about it and each has delicious food.

Karyn Calabrese! Gives sixty-year-olds a good name, eh?

I enjoyed listening to Mikael Nielsen, the
national volunteer coordinator for Mercy For Animals, because the organization
he’s apart of does such amazing work (more on them in the future).

Mikael Nielsen

I also liked hearing Marisa Buchheit since
it is cool to have a local celebrity who is vegan and can talk about her
lifestyle to groups other vegans might not reach.

Miss Chicago, Marisa Buchheit

All were entertaining and interesting speakers. It was great listening to other
compassionate vegans speak out about topics they love.

The winner of the costume contest: a block of tofu!

There was
also a vegan fashion show and a costume contest after the speakers were
done. They even had a raffle that I had
entered when we first arrived at the parade.
I didn’t expect to win anything because I have the worst luck. It’s just nice to support the cause, either
way. However, I was quite surprised to
have won a few cool prizes! I got a $25
gift card to The Chicago Diner (anyone who has read my restaurant review entry
knows how much I love that place), a $10 gift card to FlatTop Grill (not a
vegan restaurant but it has several vegan options), and – the best one of all –
a $50 gift certificate for a produce delivery service (basically, a week’s
worth of groceries). How cool is
that? We are definitely going to be
eating well in the near future!

I especially like the fact that
FlatTop Grill was there to promote their vegan options. I think that’s SUPER important! They’re not vegan but they know that vegans
like to eat. D’uh! Just be being there
and raising awareness in the vegan community, they just increased their
business. If more businesses promoted
vegan options to the world, imagine how much more money they would get, too? And you know what? I have never been there and I don’t know if I would’ve ever gone,
but because I have a gift card, I’m definitely going. And what if I like the food?
They just got themselves another repeat patron just by showing up to
some event the majority of other businesses ignored. And that’s not even taking into consideration the fact that I’d
clearly tell others and would promote the restaurant to other vegans or
vegetarians who might not have known about them. They were the ONLY ones there who weren’t 100% vegan or
vegetarian. Bravo, FlatTop Grill!

After the raffle, we pretty much
packed it in for the day. It was a fun
event and I would urge everyone to make it out next year! Show your support for all things veg! Even if you don’t walk in the parade or are
vegan or vegetarian, GO. You’ll have a nice,
fun afternoon near Chicago’s lovely waterfront. Did I also mention it’s free?
You can check out the Chicago Veggie Pride Parade’s site HERE. You should also join the meet-up group while
you’re at it and meet other vegans and vegetarians in the Chicagoland area.

I want to send a thank you to all
the volunteers that worked to put this thing together. Your hard work paid off! And to everyone else – keep calm and vegan
on!

You can follow Karyn Calabrese on Twitter at:
@KarynCalabrese

You can find Marisa Buchheit on a number of places but you
can follow her on Twitter at: @marisabuchheit

You can follow Mikael Nielsen on Twitter at: @MikaelRNielsen

You can find Mercy for Animals on a number of places but you
can follow them on Twitter at: @MercyForAnimals